I really appreciate this post and am also very excited to see more primary research. In addition to the uncertainty about how a given change in farming practices impacts welfare, I think whether or not those changes are actually occurring is highly uncertain, and I’d like to see a greater investment in M&E at animal orgs to validate this.
More primary research could be complementary to this, for example, better monitoring of welfare indicators on farms and/or at slaughter could allow us to see whether the welfare is actually improving, which requires both that the intervention is actually occurring and that it’s helping animals when it occurs.
I do wonder about our ability to measure harms like stress and fear though. I think focusing just on mortality or health conditions might lead us to make false conclusions about which farming practices are better for animals. Does anyone know anything about our capacity to measure psychological distress from deprivation of natural behaviors vs fear of violence for example? (the former being one that drives a significant amount of the improvement that cage-free brings according to WFI, the latter being one Amanda points to being absent and potentially outweighing the former)
I really appreciate this post and am also very excited to see more primary research. In addition to the uncertainty about how a given change in farming practices impacts welfare, I think whether or not those changes are actually occurring is highly uncertain, and I’d like to see a greater investment in M&E at animal orgs to validate this.
More primary research could be complementary to this, for example, better monitoring of welfare indicators on farms and/or at slaughter could allow us to see whether the welfare is actually improving, which requires both that the intervention is actually occurring and that it’s helping animals when it occurs.
I do wonder about our ability to measure harms like stress and fear though. I think focusing just on mortality or health conditions might lead us to make false conclusions about which farming practices are better for animals. Does anyone know anything about our capacity to measure psychological distress from deprivation of natural behaviors vs fear of violence for example? (the former being one that drives a significant amount of the improvement that cage-free brings according to WFI, the latter being one Amanda points to being absent and potentially outweighing the former)